Monday Made It~ Seat Crate Party!

It's another Monday and time to link up with Tara for Monday Made It! I am super excited to share my this week's project with you. It was sooooo much fun to make. I am very thankful to a fellow friend and blogger who decided we needed to get together and have a Seat Crate Make It Party! We invited some people from our school and a few others, but only four of us made it to the party. One was a newbie to our school, and we invited her, but since she doesn't know what grade she will be teaching yet... she just helped out! So here are a few pics of the action.

I think it was the 1st time I have used a heavy duty stapler!

They were not hard to make but it took us a few hours, because we did more talking than working!

Here are our finished products.

This is my 2nd grade friend Sarah's. We spray painted a sea green color and added a ribbon. 

This is my 1st grade friend Heather's. She spray painted black then took a variety of round cups, dipped them in paint and put the circles on.

And here is my finished product at my small group table. I LOVE THEM! I intend on using the crate to store small group materials, so whatever I need the students to have I will place in the crates!

I want to thank Heather for planning our party and getting most of the supplies needed and supplies the tools! We had a great time and can't wait to see them in use in all of our classes. 

Well it's time to check out other projects! I am excited to get into my classroom and put up all my projects, can't wait to share completed room pics with everyone!

Quick question: Spiral Bound notebook or the other kind of notebook for math journals and science journals, etc. I have used both in the past and had trouble with both, the spiral ones they uncurl and the others the glue comes undone and they begin to fall apart, just curious what you all use. I also get them cut in half so we don't waste that much.

Don't forget EAST TN blogger meetup this Wednesday, August 1st @ 1:00 @ Jack's City Grill in Johnson City, TN! Can't wait to see you there.

Monday Made IT!

It's Monday! I am of course linking up with Tara for Monday Made It! I have been quite busy this week. I was able to work in my classroom for a day and get everything setup furniture wise. I am going to be making another trip to Charlotte to IKEA for another bookcase. The one I got a few weeks back fits my math station boxes perfectly and while trying to figure out where my book boxes were going to go they fit perfectly too! So the amazing hubby said we could go back. Love going with the hubby but going to see if I can get a group of coworkers or friends and do a girls trip!

On to Monday Made It!

My 1st project is this cutie! I made numbers 1-5 to hang above my student tables. I haven't put them together yet, I figure I will do that when I get to school. Don't want to ruin them before I get to use it!

My 2nd project was a management chart to keep up with who is where during daily 5! I put pictures to go with it, for my visual students and since my k's can read the words they can read the pictures.

I just loved the transportation chart. My kids are always changing and I think this is an easy way to manage how they are going to get home. I will use clothespins with student names and if they are a bus rider, it will also have their bus number. This will be very beneficial when a sub is in the room as well.

My last project is still a working one as I could NOT get it to print on blue paper. I spent over an hour with the Kodak tech lady trying to figure out why my printer would not print on blue. It printed on all these colors, but I tried 2 different colors of blue paper and nothing! I was not a very happy person and still am not, since it is not finished! 

Disclaimer: None of the above are my original ideas. I pinned them on Pinterest of course. In creating this post honestly forgot to go back and link up where I found them. 

I have also been super busy printing, laminating, and cutting! Not the best job, but someone has to do it. Thanks for stopping by I will see you again next week. 

Sorry just wanted to throw this out there also. My sweet friend Heather over at First Grade Rocks.......Kindergarten Was So Last Year and I are teaming up to plan an East TN meetup! It will be in Johnson City, TN, so if you live in Western NC, or Western VA. You might be close enough to join us! If you have any questions just let me know. higgystyx@yahoo.com. Hope to see you there!

Poetry

An area in my classroom that I have always wanted to do better is Poetry!

My problem is I do really good with it and the kids love it while I have poems ready, but once I forgot to find a poem for the week, it all falls apart and I never seem to get started again. Last year sad to say my kids had about 3 poems in their poetry journal. It hurts me to know that I am not using this teaching tool to it's fullest advantage!

This year. I already have planned my beginning of the year poems, because my kinder teachers and myself are working collaboratively and doing a color a week and the color song is going to be the first set of poems. It will help teach them how to read the color words. One teacher did it last year and all most all of her kids could read the color words by the end of the color study units!

So the other teachers and I are jumping on board with her to celebrate a color a week and get our students to learn their color words more quickly!

BUT...... my problem will start when we run out of colors! I have a poem here or there that I love and use every year, but I don't have many other poems ready.

My question to you is where do you find your poems you use in class? 

My kids will be using poetry journals where they will paste the poem and then have to illustrate it and highlight certain letters or words. Their poetry journals will go in their book boxes so it can be utilized during Read to Self or Read to Someone.

Please share your poetry knowledge with me! 

Thanks

Calling ALL East TN, Western NC, and Western VA Bloggers!

Calling all East TN, Western NC, Western VA bloggers:

Let's have a meet up before school starts! 

When: Wednesday, August 1st

Where: Jack's City Grill in Johnson City, TN 

Time: 1:00

If you are near I-26 or I-81, it will bring you straight to Johnson City! Jack's City Grill is on the main road off the interstate!  

Please grab the picture above and promote our little meeting together. Hopefully we can make a new blogging friend or two. 

Please contact me Heather Shelton at higgystyx@yahoo.com if you are interested in coming!

Can't wait to see you there!

Giveaway Winner and Awards

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rafflecopter picked the winner of my 100 Follower Giveaway! Congratulations to Amy Lynn Marshall! I will be sending you your TPT gift certificate and my volunteers should be contacting you with your winnings or to get your TPT choices! 

Thanks to everyone who entered! 

I am honored to have received this award from Dede at A Series of First Grade Events and Vanessa at Kindergarten Schmindergarten.

Rules for "The One Lovely Blog" Award:
1. Follow the person who gave you the award.
2. Link back to the person who gave you the award.
3. Share the love! Pass the award onto 15 new bloggers

I also am very honored to have been awarded The Versatile Blogger award from Lisa at Super Pig and Tyrant King, and from Emily and Antionette at 4321...TEACH, and Markeeta at A Teacher and A Blog.

So here are the rules for this award.

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Include a link to their site.

3. Include the award image in your post.

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.

5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.

6. When nominating, include a link to their site

7. Let the other bloggers know they've been nominated. 

  Here are my 7 Random Facts :)

1. I used to be an avid bowler! I went to Cincinnati twice a year to compete in a tournament for your average bowlers. Since I have had two kids, I have not been bowling in a long time. I miss it greatly!

2. I played high school volleyball and loved it! Now when we play at school against the middle school team, I have to play on the faculty side and I hope that at least one of my girls chose to follow my footsteps and play. If not that's great too!

3. I met my hubby in Fort Lauderdale, FL. We started talking to each other in the Bahamas. And came home to find we only lived 5 minutes away from each other. Click here to read that post. Now 12 years later we have 2 beautiful blond haired brown eyed girls.

4. I am a mountain person. I live in East TN and love it! I am not so much of a beach person although, last year took the family to Tybee Island, GA and LOVED it! Can not wait to go back.

5.  My favorite ice cream is homemade pistachio!

6. I drive a black Ford 500 which my coworkers tend to call my mob mobile due to the tinted windows and the fact that my seat lays back when I drive!

7. My favorite holiday is Halloween! my girls bdays are the day before and the day after and I am looking forward to having costume parties when they get older!

And I am suppose to pass this award along, but I am going to be a party pooper and not do it, due to the fact it took me forever to make this post hence me receiving One Lovely Blog from 2 wonderful blogs and the Versatile Blogger award 3 times from 3 fabulous blogs! So sorry, but that's how I am going to roll on this one.

Monday Made It # 7

So happy it's Monday and time for Tara's Monday Made It! I swear I don't think I would have accomplished near as much as I have had it not been for this linky. But at the same time, I also don't think my to-do list would have kept growing the way it has with everyone's awesome ideas and creations. This week I have a lot of irons in the fire but not much completed. So hopefully next week will have more completed projects!

This week I was inspired by Jennifer at Kindertips: Lunch Clips. My kids get a clothespin with their name and lunch number on it and wear it to lunch until the memorize their number. Sometimes by the time you write the kid's name there is not much room left for the number. Problem solved by taking the wooden spoons and hot gluing it on top of the clothespin! So while I was at school working today and it came a downpour right before I was getting ready to leave I quickly prepared these. Now when I get my roster all I have to do is fill them out! 

So sorry for the super short post but now I am going to see if I can find any new projects to work on. 

Don't forget to enter my 100 Follower giveaway! Chick here to enter! 

I am at 127 followers!

Classroom Finds

Well yesterday was my youngest day to go to daycare, so I took the oldest and we headed to two towns up from where we live! Yes I fell victim to what all teachers fall victim to..... I really want this...have no idea exactly what for....but I am sure I can find something to use it for!

So after a trip to Target, Micheal's, and A to Z the local teacher supply store (for the border that I had ran out of while trying to finish my borders before summer school was out!). Here is my loot!

The green and blue baskets are my I love these, but don't really know what I will be using them for. I got 5 one for each of my tables and I am thinking of putting colored pencils in one set and thin markers in the other set. Not sure though, but figured they went with my blue and green color scheme, so just had to have them. I also scored the black tins (5 of them) at Target as well, clueless as to what I am going to use them for but they were cute! Plus they were $1.00! I mean we love the dollar spot right????? Except those dollars quickly add up! 

Then it was on to Micheal's to see what I could find. I lucked out and found the 3 pack plastic containers for $3.99. So I got all they had 3 packs of them. I am thinking these will be great for the regular markers or for math manipulatives! Wish they had more! I also got blue duct tape. Have a project I am going to attempt for that one, you will have to check out my future Monday Made It's with Tara to see if it worked or didn't!

Then made quick stop in Dollar Tree and got 2 magnetic pockets for my dry erase board to hold my dry erase markers!

I stopped by school to see what condition my room was in and found shiny floors. Well somewhat shiny floors.........the crew that did them rushed and they are not near as shiny as they should be:( But they are done and this allows me to begin working in my room sooner than I have ever been able to. That makes me super excited! So Mondays and Fridays will be school work days cause the youngest goes to daycare and the oldest will either come with or stay with nanny!

So today the hubs and I went to move my furniture back to where I wanted it. I weigh my body temp and can not move much of anything ever, so he is always my muscle to move my things, sadly it was on the verge of raining so I was unable to take my IKEA items to my room.

I am working on a slightly different layout so I got most of the things where I wanted, but have a lot of open space, so I am going to have to play with it again!

I also ran back to the Dollar Tree today to get the ceiling hangings to put over my tables to label them and picked up ink at Sam's while we were there.  Sorry for the poor quality pic took with the phone!

Anyways that was my school spending for the week. How much did you get for school this week?

Don't forget to my giveaway ends Tuesday night! Click here to enter.

And my friend Markeeta at A Teacher and A Blog is also celebrating her 100th followers with a giveaway.  Click here to enter hers!

100 Followers Giveaway

I can't believe that I am at 100 followers! When I started this blog back in January I had no clue exactly what I was doing. I just knew that I was getting wonderful ideas from amazing bloggers and wanted to attempt to share some of what I do. I am hoping that you all get a few ideas from what I have to share! I am starting my 8th year teaching and blogging has became a very useful resource and outlet for me. I hope to share more pictures and ideas with the new school year getting ready to start! 

I am super thankful to Tara for hosting the Monday Made It linky which has gotten me a ton of follwers! 

So onto the giveaway:)

My wonderful and very generous Tennessee blogging friends have teamed up with me to offer some great prizes! Check out below to see what you have the chance of winning. The contest opens at 12:00 am Tuesday July 10th and goes till Tuesday July 17th! I will then chose a winner and post it on Wednesday.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday Made It Week 6

I can not believe that we are already on Monday Made It Week 6! I once again am joining Tara for this amazing linky! I would not have been able to accomplish everything I have and still intend on doing prior to school starting had it not been for wanting to join Tara every Monday and share with everyone what I am doing.

I look forward to Mondays, and we all know that it is very rare for anyone to enjoy a Monday. When school starts we will have to attempt to look forward to Mondays like we do now. Ummmmm.......... who am I kidding Monday's when school starts not a happy thing! Anyways here we go with this week's project.

I printed my Thematic File Folders that I had previously purchased from Erica Bohrer on TPT. I got my supplies ready...colored file folders, glue stick, paper cutter (to trim them up to fit) and I got busy. This while the kiddos were actually taking a nap.

So here is a couple pics of my finished product. I intend on using them mainly for inspiration with writing, but I also thought it will be great to use some(Cooking, Junk Food, Fruits and Vegetables) in housekeeping during play centers and get them to write grocery lists, or who knows what.  I intend on trying to pull out the Birthday one on days when a student in the class has a birthday! Teeth for when someone comes in wanting to share their story. I see tons of possibilities!

I am very excited about these. I am hopeful it will help get some of my students writing better because of the help with words they want to write but are afraid to try to sound out. We shall see.

Now I want to share an EPIC FAIL!!!!!

So I had seen this really cute headband holder on Pinterest(not sure where couldn't find the link), but I remembered it was made of an empty oatmeal container. I just finished a container and was excited to get my scrapbook paper, measure, cut, and tape it into place and have a cute holder for the girls headbands. So I did just that!

But.......................................

I did not test my container out prior to doing all the work. Thank goodness that it wasn't too hard or I would have SCREAMED, because when I gathered up the girls headbands and placed them on the container they all fell down. My container was too small:( The headbands didn't fit at all, so when I picked my container up the headbands went everywhere. So just a side note, but measure before you start a project! Had I done this I would not have a cute purple container that now I am just going to give the girls to play with.

Well I am off to see what I can add to my to-do list as I look at everyone else's Monday Made It's! Have a great week. See you next Monday!

****With this post I now have 100+ followers! I have a giveaway that will start tomorrow, you won't want to miss it!****

IKEA Classroom finds

I am linking up with Kristen at Ladybug Teacher Files for Summer Shopping Linky Party!

I recently traveled to IKEA in Charlotte with the hubby! It was a 3 1/2 hour trip one way, but I loved it! Hubby not so much! We literally drove there was in the store 3 HOURS, and drove the 3 1/2 hours back home. It was an extremely long day, but I scored a few things for my classroom. I wanted much more, but everyone has a budget and this is all I could justify right now! I am already thinking of planning another trip in the near future, but we will just have to see!

So here is what I got:

Bookcase~ I need more storage space in my room, so I got a very nice and sturdy bookcase. ($69.99)



Computer Chairs~ I have ancient old cloth covered computer chairs, so hubby spotted these adorable new ones and they matched my new color scheme. I just had to get them. I am thinking of using them as rewards for getting to the top of the behavior chart or something. They were way too stinkin cute not to get. So I got four for my four computers! ($14.99 each)



Magazine Boxes~ I had ran into a dilemma over my current book boxes. I have the really good ones, but they are your basic primary colors. Red and Green does not go very well with my blue, neon green, and yellow color scheme. So I found these magazine boxes that I am going to use for the student book boxes. They were 5 for $1.99! I couldn't pass it up. I got 25 of them! Now I can use my good ones in my classroom library and the kids can use these.

I got a set of plastic cups, plates, and bowls for my housekeeping center. 6 colors of each for $1.99 each.

I got a dust pan and broom for when the kids make a mess they can clean it up. ($1.99) It was bright green!

I also got a roll of art paper for the easel for $4.99.

I think that is it! I am hoping to get my teacher friends on board and heading back to Charlotte before the school year starts. There was plenty more super cute stuff that I could use. If you have been to IKEA, what are things that you purchase for your classroom?

Giveaway you don't want to miss

Mrs. Stanford is having an amazing giveaway! There are sooooo many prizes it's unbelievable. Head on over for your chance to win!

 

 

 

July Currently

I can't believe it's already JULY! But I am super happy to link up with Farley for her monthly Currently!

I am happy that my 5 year old and 20 month old enjoy playing together MOST of the time! I love listening to them. 

I finished teaching upcoming kindergarten summer school Monday, so I am officially on summer break for a month and a week! Time to enjoy my girls!

If it's already hit triple digits at the end of June, what is July and August going to bring! 

I have convinced the hubby we need to take a trip to IKEA! So since he is off the rest of the week, I am hoping we can go sometime before he goes back to work. The nearest store is 3 1/2 hours away!

I have severely neglected my housework due to teaching summer school, so the next few days will be cleaning time, if I can stay off the computer and my phone!

My newest favorite repeat read is Pete the Cat. I introduced him to the kids in summer school and they loved him. I HAD to read at least one Pete book a day or they were not happy with me. They loved the songs!

I am digging in deep to The Daily 5 this summer. I have done a little with it in the past, but just couldn't get happy with it and how to do it in Kindergarten! But after the book study with Kinders only! I am very excited and looking forward to successfully implementing it this year. So it is by far my go to right now!

Head on over to Farley's blog to see what everyone else is Currently up to.

Monday Made It on a Tuesday!

So I am linking up with Tara's Monday Made It a day late, due to not being home last night to post. I was busy though I went to a painting class and made a picture for my oldest daughter room. I had a blast and can't wait to take a class to make a painting for my youngest room! So here is what I painted!

I haven't been really busy with classroom stuff, but I have created a welcome sign for my door and signs for my word wall and math wall. I took the picture of them laying on my yellow table, so the colors are not very good but they are lime green and bright blue shadow. I used my mom's circuit to make the letters and the circles! Now I just have to laminate them and put them on the wall. Trying to decide if I want to add ribbon to it or leave it plain and post it on the wall.

The other thing that I have worked most of the week on is ATTEMPT to organize my jump drive! I have come to the conclusion that it is going to be impossible to get everything where I want it, due to having so much and that many things can go in more than one place. I did get all the Teacher's Appreciation Day Blog Freebies filed where they should go, but I still have a ton of things that I am weeding through.

So a big question for you is...... How to you organize your jump drive?

 

Well, now it's time to go attempt to look at what everyone else has been up to. I never finished checking out all the links last week and this week is even more. Love this linky! See you next Monday (I hope)!